Jeff Kaplan: Overwatch's graphic novel was too limiting

'Overwatch' cancelled its graphic novel because it would have "limited" the game's universe, according to game director Jeff Kaplan.

'Overwatch' cancelled its graphic novel because it would have "limited" the game's universe.

Overwatch

The team-based multiplayer first-person shooter was due to get a graphic novel adaptation entitled 'Overwatch: First Strike' before the project was nixed in November, and game director Jeff Kaplan has now said the decision came as he believed the "specific, contained story" would have had a negative impact on the actual game's universe.

He said: "The art was beautiful and the writing was excellent, and it was a really hard decision for us. The reason had less to do with the specific content in that novel and more to do with the way that it would have limited us. It was a very specific, contained story."

'Overwatch: First Strike' was supposed to detail the origins of the original Overwatch strike team and would have taken place during the Omnic Crisis, a major turning point in the game's universe.

Jeff - who is the vice president of Blizzard Entertainment - believes that keeping these origin stories in the dark means that fans can come up with their own theories as to what happened, which he says is "part of the magic" of the game.

He added to Polygon.com: "We sort of saw 'Overwatch' really open up to the world, and listening to players and the stories they were telling and what they imagined the Omnic crisis to be really made us second guess what we were doing in 'First Strike'. We thought, 'Hey, if we go down this path, it really closes all these doors.'

"Part of the magic is that everything is not tied off and explained to players. There's a lot going on in 'Overwatch' right now where I think that the story in players' heads is often even cooler than what we can deliver to them."